1. Technical Field
This invention relates to computerized three-dimensional modeling systems, and more particularly, to a software application configured to reside on a client computer, which is capable of manipulating 3-D object representations in-situ with a user-selected or user-generated interior design scene, and rendering photographic quality perspective images of the composite scene.
2. Background Information
Throughout this application, various publications, patents and published patent applications are referred to by an identifying citation. The disclosures of the publications, patents and published patent applications referenced in this application are hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure.
Many systems have been devised to provide various design and modeling functionality. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,352 to Falk for MAPPING OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE DETAIL ON THREE-DIMENSIONAL SURFACES concerns a system and method for providing surface detail to mathematically-defined three-dimensional surfaces which preserves the specific dimensional integrity of the surface detail image being mapped in order to provide dimensionally correct surface detail. This is accomplished by performing the intermediate step of mapping the surface detail image to a two-dimensional flattened pattern piece representation of the surface and thereafter mapping this representation to the three-dimensional surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,806 to Danial for a METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING, STORING AND PROVIDING DATA CORRESPONDING TO GEOMETRICALLY DESCRIBABLE RAW MATERIALS concerns an apparatus and method employing a programmable computer for providing a list of data items corresponding to geometrically describable materials based upon a profile specified by a user. The list of data items is stored in a database. Each data item includes geometrically descriptive terms and trading parameters identifying characteristics of an item offered for sale by an advertiser. A profile is generated by a user that includes geometrically descriptive terms and trading parameters identifying characteristics of an item sought for purchase by the user. The profile identified by the user is compared to each data item stored in the database and data items are identified which match the profile. The data items identified are provided to the user in accordance with the user's specific delivery instructions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,969 to Thomas, et. al., concerns METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MANIPULATION OF IMAGES OF FLOOR COVERINGS OR OTHER FABRICS that enable a fabric or textile sampling and design process. The sampling and design process is claimed to be valuable in the design and selection of floor coverings, wall coverings and other interior design treatments. A digital library of fabric models is created. A user may navigate among the set of alternative models, and may modify the positions of the selected models to test out desired combinations of characteristics—such as poms or yarn ends, or models of floor coverings—and view the results in high resolution. A method is provided for substituting colors in digital images, while preserving their realism particularly in the vicinity of shadows. The resulting samples or designs can be stored and transmitted over a telecommunications network or by other means to a central facility that can either generate photographic-quality images of the samples, or can directly generate actual samples of the carpet or other material of interest.
At least one previous upholstered furniture customization system involves a real-time network-based interactive system for support of visualizing upholstered furniture prior to placing an order for the upholstered furniture. This existing interactive system of La-Z-Boy™ Incorporated, and possibly others, is available for use by sales associates in La-Z-Boy™ furniture showrooms. The system permits prospective customers to preview La-Z-Boy™ furniture upholstered in La-Z-Boy™ offered fabrics. It requires a La-Z-Boy™ furniture item number, and a La-Z-Boy™ fabric number. The system then maps the fabric onto a static perspective view of the selected furniture item.
This system generates furniture images in 2D as opposed to 3D, does not enable them to be shown in context of a background scene (e.g., a particular room), and does not enable them to be manipulated, e.g., for scaling, rotation and particular placement within the background scenes.
Image systems and methods also exist, which involve communications across a digital communications network such as the Internet. One such network-based system, which generates 2D, rather than 3D images is the called the cMyVision™ design software for use in interior, exterior, home and landscape improvement. The cMyVision™ software is a product, and cMyVision™ web site a service, of Visual Applications, Inc. (VisApp), of Kansas City, Mo. (cMyVision™ is a trademark of VisApp.) VisApp is a publisher of personal visualization technology, with a web site at <http://www.visapp.com> of the year 2000.
The cMyVision™ design software requires a digital photo of a house, normally the client's own house. Into this 2D scene a 2D object is inserted from the cMyVision library, or database. The cMyvision system operates to produce two-dimensional (2D), rather than 3D images.
VisApp also sells a product called VisualPhile™ Personal Visualization Software, purportedly to support professional interior remodeling and design. This software appears to provide the same features as the cMyvision™ system. It runs on a personal computer without an Internet connection, as its library is included with the program. It is primarily suited to providing photorealistic visualizations of home remodeling as opposed to decorating projects. As in cMyVision™, a certain degree of photorealism stems from the use of photographs for both rooms and built-ins, appliances and furnishings.
However, there exist inherent limitations to both the cMyVision™ and VisualPhile™ systems, which may be severe when applied to professional interior design, relative to their use of digital photographs. These systems are not based upon 3D coordinates, so furniture images have to be placed and scaled visually by the user, and the furniture objects are 2D images, so they cannot be rotated to match the angle of the room photograph (as may seen to be the case in the present invention). Therefore, in both the cMyVision™ and VisualPhile™ systems, room photos must be taken from a specified perspective (i.e., vantage point), which must be carefully configured to match the angle from which their furniture photographs are taken. Moreover, because the furniture images are only photographs, and not 3D models, it is generally not possible to map fabrics on them.
A number of stand alone software programs are commercially available which support interior design. These programs generally run on personal computers and allow the user to design rooms, place furniture objects into rooms, change wall colors and furniture fabrics, and display the customized furniture in the decorated rooms. Custom Home 3-D Design and Décor™, published by Sierra On-line, Inc., 5 in 1 Home Design™ by Punch! Software LLC, and 3D Home Interiors™ by Broderbund all support most of these design-assistance and visualization objectives. In addition, numerous commercially-available programs support architectural rendering, including computer-aided design (CAD) programs like AutoCAD, which incorporate 3-D functionality and therefore have application to interior design.
The Custom Home 3-D Design and Décor™ product includes a program called Photo Home Interiors™. This program, unlike the others, allows users to import photographs of actual rooms into the program, and then place furniture objects into the room images. The objects include 3-D furniture models, which can be rotated and scaled to fit the scene. However, the room images are not associated with a 3-D model of the room. In other words, while Photo Home Interiors™ does allow furniture objects to be shown as an overlay on top of room photographs, it lacks the capability of rendering furniture objects placed onto floor plans in photographically-derived scenes. Therefore, this program does not allow wall and floor coverings to be displayed in the proper perspective. In addition, the 3-D objects need to be visually scaled by the user to compensate for the perceived distance from the camera position. With this system, it is not possible to evaluate furniture objects of specific dimensions as to scale.
Three-dimensional (3D) image capture technology is commercially available, such as from Minolta Co., Ltd The Minolta VIVID 910 Non-contact 3-D digitizer is a complete hardware/software package that utilizes laser triangulation in conjunction with a Minolta CCD camera. The system is packaged with a basic Polygon Editing Tool. This system may be enhanced with various optional software packages such as Geomagic Studio from Raindrop Geomagic, Inc., Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27709 that provides numerous features to create 3-D models which can be transmitted over a network for further manipulation.
Other commercially available 3D imaging tools include a Web3D Browser. This is a piece of software that lets a user view and navigate around a 3D scene over the Web, for example a VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) file. These browsers can either be stand alone programs or, more typically, they are plug-ins for common Web browsers such as Netscape Communicator™ or Internet Explorer™. A number of companies produce Web3D products. A few of the common systems include the following: Actify 3DView, Contact from Blaxxun Interactive; Cortona from ParallelGraphics; Cosmo Player from Platinum Technologies; Fraunhofer Institute CASUS Presenter; Graz University VRWave; Java X3D Browser; OpenWorlds Horizon Browsers; Shout3d from Eyematic; Sony Community Place; Superscape Viscape Support; UpperCut Software WorldProbe. A more complete list of Web3D browser software can be found at the Web3D web site www.web3d.org.
One system that purports to address the drawbacks associated with many of the above-referenced systems is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0093538. This reference discloses a software-based system for (i) interactively producing, and (ii) rendering, across a digital communications network, photorealistic composite images of interactively customized products in such surroundings as are customary to and specified by the viewer of the image. This system discloses photorealistically displaying goods selected by a user in situ with an environment also selected or specified by the user to generate a photorealistic image using computational resources of the user's client computer to “frame” the scene, and the greater computational resources of a server and allied computers to, ultimately, render the 3D objects in a 3D scene to form a “photorealistic composite”.
While this system may overcome some of the disadvantages of the prior art, it is not without drawbacks, not the least of which is the time lag associated with uploading the “frame” of the scene, waiting for the server to render the 3D composite, and downloading a relatively large file or array of files. Moreover, additional changes made after such rendering, such as moving objects within the scene, presumably cannot be effected at the client computer. Rather, any such changes would require the user to re-create or edit the “frame”, re-transmit it to the server, and again wait for the new composite to be rendered and downloaded.
Thus, a need exists for an improved 3D design and visualization system that includes an easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI), is capable of enabling a user to quickly and conveniently generate or import 3D scenes, import and manipulate 3D objects in the scenes in real time, and which is capable of rendering them in photorealistic detail on the client computer.